Getting off the beaten path, even as meagre a one as Highway 37, is a must for explorers. Those seeking solitude can go for days or weeks in some areas without sharing this rugged beauty with anyone else. Forged in fire, carved with ice, coloured with sprawling verdant forests, crystalline blue lakes, and fragile alpine meadows: welcome to the backcountry.
Stikine River Provincial Park is a narrow park straddling the Stikine River and linking Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park and Mount Edziza Provincial Park. The park protects a geological feature unparalleled in Canada. Eighty kilometres of steep-walled canyon, composed of sedimentary and volcanic rock, has been carved through eons of river erosion. In the bottom of this sometimes 300 metre deep chasm flows the wild and unnavigable Stikine River, which varies in width from 200 metres to as little as 2 metres at a point near the Tanzilla and Stikine confluence.
The 217,000-hectare Stikine River Provincial Park is home to hundreds of animal species including moose, grizzly and black bears, wolves, beavers, hoary marmots, and a variety of birds. At last count, the Grand Canyon of the Stikine was home to more than 360 mountain goats that use the sheer canyon walls as effective protection from all natural predators.
Canoeing and kayaking are permitted on the upper Stikine River. Don’t even think about canoeing or kayaking the Stikine River into the Grand Canyon of the Stikine, a 100-m stretch of impassable waters that charge through canyons 300 metres deep. It has only been tamed once.
Fish year-round for a variety of native species including Dolly Varden, Arctic grayling and rainbow trout, or try for Chinook salmon or steelhead (downstream of the grand canyon) during the late summer and fall. A primitive boat launch is available on the west side of the highway #37 bridge.
A Letter of Permission is required for individuals or groups who wish to use horses within the park. To obtain a Letter of Permission, please contact the BC Parks Stikine Area Office at 250- 771-4591.
There are two moderately short hiking trails in the Stikine River Provincial Park. The first leads from a pullout near the northern park border to a viewpoint overlooking the Tuya River. About 10 km beyond, a trail leads to the floor of the valley and on to the confluence of the Tuya and Stikine Rivers.
The park has no camping facilities, but wilderness camping is permitted. The Stikine River Park is an undeveloped wilderness area, so visitors should be self-sufficient and properly equipped. Rustic campsites with fire rings, picnic tables, tenting areas, and pit toilets are available at Fountain Rapids, Chapea Rapids, Beggerlay Canyon (all 3 are portage trails), and at the canoe pull-out at the Highway 37 bridge.
The land in the valley bottom of the Tahltan River is an Indian Reserve. Remember that this is private land and permission is needed to camp there.
Stikine River Provincial Park is located north of 40 Mile Flats off Highway 37. Access is along the scenic Telegraph Creek Road, which leads 110 km from Dease Lake. Caution should be used when driving into the site, as the road is steep and narrow in some places. The main canyon on the Stikine runs from just west of the highway #37 bridge to Telegraph Creek townsite.
Nearby Regions & Towns
Park Notices
